Series 1 Guitar

[jalevinemd]

Series 1 Guitar
 
Nice guitar, but I don't understand where people get their asking prices from.
 
Puff?puff..pass.

[sonofa_lembic]

Way too expensive, and look at the massive crack in the middle of the fingerboard!

[lbpesq]

I don't see the crack, maybe because I'm looking on my iPad.  Where on the fingerboard is it?
 
Bill, tgo

[elwoodblue]

I had a couple minutes...it looks like it should have been oiled a long time ago.
 

[lbpesq]

Thanks, Elwoodblue.  Now I see it.  Too bad!  It amazes me how many old guitars I have obtained that seem to have never had their fret-boards oiled for decades.  When I do get one of those, boy do they suck up the lemon oil in a matter of seconds!
 
Bill, tgo

[gtrguy]

Why would oiling them keep them from cracking?
Thanks

[Enzo]

I'm not the most qualified guy in these things but I guess it's because, being the fretboard usually the only untreated wooden part of the instrument, when it contracts and expands and there's not enough moisture, it cracks.

[ed_zeppelin]

I've been an instrument repairman (primarily acoustic) since the 80s, and all I've learned is that trees are like people. Each is unique. A tree can have a hard year or two, and it'll show someplace.
 
Wood grain is a record, remember. Cells attach end to end like crazy so the tree can climb to the sky. Side to side, not so much. And it's dried. (Kinda.)  
 
I taught at a Summer guitar clinic in New England, and midway through it one of those horrendous, 110 degree, 99% humility heat waves hit. I took a straightedge around and asked if I could lay it across the bottom bout of acoustic guitars, just behind and parallel to the bridge.  
 
Before lunch, most were dead flat or reasonably close. By late afternoon there was a good half-inch of clearance on the edges.
 
All a luthier can do is mitigate, balance, compromise.
 
If any competent repairman is honest, they'll admit that in at least  some cases, we have no idea what happened. Wood twists, warps, swells, misbehaves.
 
Sure, using a stand helps (MF has those wonderful self- locking Auto Grab Hercules stands for $28! http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/hercules-stands-single-guitar-stand-with-folding-yoke?rNtt=Hercules&index=3 ) and rub in lemon oil on the fingerboard now and then, but stuff just happens sometimes.
 
Check out the cleats in this 365 year old Venetian double bass, from @1650 http://www.contrabass.co.uk/images/instruments/2790/pre_restoration/10-front-inside.jpg  each represents a failure of some sort.  
 
Another view: http://www.contrabass.co.uk/images/instruments/2790/pre_restoration/14-bass_ribs.jpg
 
Here's the history: http://www.contrabass.co.uk/2790.htm
 
Stuff just happens sometimes.  
 
I can't imagine the wood cracking down the center of the Alembic's fingerboard without the truss rod channel being involved, somehow, but that's just a wild guess. If it was hneer to uniform dryness in the wood, ii seems like it would have shown up somewhere else as well.
 
It's an easy fix, fortunately.

[ed_zeppelin]

I've been an instrument repairman (primarily acoustic) since the 80s, and all I've learned is that trees are like people. Each is unique. A tree can have a hard year or two, and it'll show someplace.
 
Wood grain is a record, remember. Cells attach end to end like crazy so the tree can climb to the sky. Side to side, not so much. And it's dried. (Kinda.)  
 
I taught at a Summer guitar clinic in New England, and midway through it one of those horrendous, 110 degree, 99% humility heat waves hit. I took a straightedge around and asked if I could lay it across the bottom bout of acoustic guitars, just behind and parallel to the bridge.  
 
Before lunch, most were dead flat or reasonably close. By late afternoon there was a good half-inch of clearance on the edges.
 
All a luthier can do is mitigate, balance, compromise.
 
If any competent repairman is honest, they'll admit that in at least  some cases, we have no idea what happened. Wood twists, warps, swells, misbehaves.
 
Sure, using a stand helps (MF has those wonderful self- locking Auto Grab Hercules stands for $28! http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/hercules-stands-single-guitar-stand-with-folding-yoke?rNtt=Hercules&index=3 ) and rub in lemon oil on the fingerboard now and then, but stuff just happens sometimes.
 
Check out the cleats in this 365 year old Venetian double bass, from @1650 http://www.contrabass.co.uk/images/instruments/2790/pre_restoration/10-front-inside.jpg  each represents a failure of some sort.  
 
Another view: http://www.contrabass.co.uk/images/instruments/2790/pre_restoration/14-bass_ribs.jpg
 
Here's the history: http://www.contrabass.co.uk/2790.htm
 
Stuff just happens sometimes.  
 
I can't imagine the wood cracking down the center of the Alembic's fingerboard without the truss rod channel being involved, somehow, but that's just a wild guess.
 
It's an easy fix, fortunately.

[lbpesq]

My understanding is that natural oils in the wood dry out and leave tiny, (like molecular size), voids in the wood.  The lemon oil has molecular components that fill these voids - or at least I seem to remember Mica posting something along those lines.
 
And, of course, it smells good!
 
Bill, tgo

[lbpesq]

Found it.  Mica, from 2005:
 
Our thought on the finish of a fingerboard is that Ebony is very stong and durable all on its own and we prefer it in its natural state. It also has a wonderful touch.
 
In my experience, both pure linseed oil and pure tung oil rarely fully harden. That bothers me, but perhaps I'm just very sensitive. Polymerized oils do fully harden, but that too changes the touch. I've even heard of folks using Thompson's Water Seal on fingerboards.
 
As the larger organic molecules, like the heavy turpines, evaporate from the Ebony, a pure lemon oil (which is rich in these compounds) penetrates just enough to replenish these and impede cracking.
 
Oils also help dissolve the gunk that accumulates on well-played fingerboards. Eduardo once suggested lighter fluid (naptha) is commonly used in Mexico for cleaning fingerboards so I tried it. It evaporates pretty quickly, and the board isn't super rich black when done, but it does seem clean. After some pure lemon oil, it looked great.
 
It's true that some people never oil their fingerboards and never have any troubles with cracking. We repair far fewer cracks on fingerboards where the owner has cared for it with a good quality oil.
 
We use a fairly thick piece of Ebony, and it can take levelling and refretting several times if done by a carfeul repairperson. The fingerboard is not viewed as a permanent part of the instrument. Hopefully eventually someone will play the instrument enough that it requires replacing after several refrets. I think that means we did a good job, worthy of a player spending time making that much music on it.
 
You have to balance how much you want to preserve the board to the way it feels when you play it.

[jazzyvee]

I just do mine about twice a year and it seems to stay looking lovely and black. I also think that guitar is a tad overpriced but if he finds the right buyer it may indeed fetch that price.

[ed_zeppelin]

From an interview with Doug Irwin about Jerry Garcia's guitars:
 
DI: I used a lot of Schaller stuff, exclusively Schaller tuning stuff on all of Jerry's guitars.
 
SQ: Any particular model number?
 
DI: Well the M6, M6G because I got the gold-plated. Jerry had an unusual body chemistry. Of all the people that I've worked on guitars for, I've worked on guitars for a lot of people, Jerry had the most corrosive sweat.
 
SQ: What effect did that have?
 
DI: Actually it was kind of interesting because he can eat through chrome nickel plating in three weeks. I'm not kidding you, this is like what bumpers of cars are made out of you know, it's resistant. But gold, he didn't react to, and it lasted a long time.
 
SQ: I wonder what caused that to happen?
 
DI: Well, just the fact that human beings are all similar, but we're all different. Body chemistry from individual to individual varies quite a bit. The gold tuning gear was really, I mean that's one of the reason that I used Shallers because they really do incredible plating and stuff like that. When they do gold plating on something, they don't fool around. The gold really lasts a long time, they use such a nice shade of gold, too. There's 21 colors of gold in natural shades.  
 
But Germans are really good at making metal stuff. It's kind of the only thing they had to work with. They're sitting on top of the iron triangle and it's not a good farming region, so what do you do? ...
 
http://dozin.com/dougirwin/interviewpg3.html
 
As a repairman, I can vouch for the fact that a lot of people oil their fingerboards every time they play. it's a lot more widespread than you'd think. The bassist Billy Sheehan has to wear TWO wristbands on each hand to keep the flow of grease and corruption in check.  
 
I have a small plastic box filled with the desiccated grease and finger scum scraped off Joe Walsh's fingerboards from a couple of refret jobs we did for him. (The glamorous part of the job.)

[lbpesq]

While Alembic has produced a very limited output of instruments, compared to many other manufacturers, they've undoubtedly built and repaired a heck of a lot more instruments than Irwin ever did.  How many Irwin instruments, other than Jerry's (which did not include Wolf, a true Alembic), and Phil's bass have you seen?  I strongly suspect that Irwin built a relatively modest number of instruments.  That would explain why they are rarely seen.  Personally, I believe Irwin's reputation is built largely upon his association with Jerry rather than upon his experience and the instruments he built.  I'll take Mica/Alembic's advice over Irwin's any day.
 
And I suspect the components of human finger oil are quite different from lemon oil and wouldn't  nourish the wood in the same manner.
 
Bill, tgo
 
(Message edited by Lbpesq on August 02, 2015)

[jazzyvee]

I guess I have something in common with Gerry then. I didn't realise until 92 when I first went on tour in the states that my finger sweat was corrosive. I was changing strings every other gig as the plating was completely removed of the strings and they would corrode and break where I'd been in contact with it. I tried all the strings recommended by the guitar stores in places we visited. Obviously I wasn't working hard enough here in the uk for that to be a problem. Anyway years later when I toured there again I still had the same problem and visited GC in LA and they recommended Elixir coated strings.... bingo problem solved. They even gave me huge discount because I was on tour so I bought a couple of boxes. Interestingly i've not had the same problem yet playing bass.  
 
That said I still lemon oil my guitars fairly regularly. Actually my strat has an ebony board and I never knew it should be oiled at all until I got an alembic and read  here on the forum about caring for ebony fingerboards. That guitar doesn't have any splitting problems and it had been my only gigging guitar for about 10yrs.